Democrats Mock the Vote

by Ari Armstrong, October 4, 2006

Congratulations, Colorado Democrats. Some of you have become the lying, manipulative cynics that you always claim Republicans to be.

Yesterday some unknown party put Democratic propaganda in my door, perhaps because my wife and I are registered unaffiliated. We were left a voter registration form, an absentee ballot form, a flyer urging me to "Elect Democrats for change!", and a "Great Slate of Candidates" that lists only Democrats. Nowhere did I find a notice of precisely who paid for the literature, but I think it's safe to assume that the funders and distributers were Democrats.

The flyer begins by lamenting "all these years with a Republican President and Governor... all these years with them controlling Congress..." There's just one minor detail omitted from this description. Democrats have been in control of Colorado's legislature. If they remain in control, and if Bill Ritter wins the governor's race, the Democrats will dominate every aspect of state government. The flyer thus cynically relies on the ignorance of voters and their anger at the "establishment," even though the establishment in Colorado consists of a Democrat-controlled House and Senate.

The flyer correctly blames Republicans for the war in Iraq and for exploding federal deficits. But the flyer also blames Republicans for things that are primarily the fault of Democrats. Higher gas prices? That's largely the result of left-wing environmentalists who try to halt energy production at every turn. Higher health costs? That's the result of constant political meddling in medicine. One category conveniently omitted is that of higher taxes, for which blame can be split roughly evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

So higher gasoline prices are a problem, right? Yes, according to the flyer. Yet the flyer also wishes to implement reforms based on the alleged "science on Global Warming." Uh, mightn't that result in even higher gasoline prices? Obviously. But what's an outright contradiction when the entire point is to manipulate voters? The flyer also lies when it claims that Republicans have given "gas, mining and timber interests a blank check to poison our air and water." Of course, many Democrats do want even more restrictive pollution controls, something that will increase the price of both gasoline and utilities (which are also mentioned in the flyer).

The flyer claims that "wages are down." Says who? The flyer doesn't bother to back up any of its claims with citations. Out in Reality Land, a place where these Democrats apparently rarely venture, "Average wage increases in Colorado next year should be slightly better than the wage gains seen this year... according to a survey from the Mountain States Employers Council released Thursday. Colorado employers told Mountain States that they plan average wage increases of 3.6 percent next year, up from this year's average of 3.5 percent." (Source: Aldo Svaldi, "Upbeat look at wages in '07," The Denver Post, September 22, 2006.)

Again, the flyer is intentionally deceptive, designed to play on the biases and ignorance of voters.

As for the the flyer's claim that "Colorado has the country's highest foreclosure rate," this is caused by the government's economic interference. Specifically, the Federal Reserve artificially manipulates interest rates and the national government subsidizes and tax-discriminates in favor of housing loans. Are we to seriously believe that Democrats would be less interventionist?

I found it comical that the flyer complains about the Republican Congress, yet the paper listing the "slate" urges me to vote for Democrat Mark Udall, the incumbent who has about zero chance of losing his race.

Also on the slate is Debbie Benefield, who happens to be the state representative for my area. The pleasantly-named Main Street Colorado has relentlessly mailed for Benefield, claiming that she stands up to special interests. (I mentioned this previously.) The fact that the claim is nonsense -- Benefield supports various special interests -- doesn't hinder these crusading Dems. In mailers of her own, Benefield makes clear that the Democrats' answer to health coverage is to further socialize medicine, even though government interference in medicine is the very source of existing problems.

Democrats may well win their elections using such sleazy tactics. But a republican form of governance cannot indefinitely survive on mass deception and the cynical exploitation of public ignorance. It is ironic yet predictable that the party named for the mass vote devolves to rule by mass delusion (not that the Republicans are any better).